Lotteries are extremely popular games that generate significant revenues for sponsoring states that offer them. In a typical lottery, a player (ticket holder) purchases a lottery ticket having ticket numbers and a serial number inscribed thereon. The ticket numbers allow both the ticket holder and a lottery agent to identify whether the ticket holder has won a prize. The serial number uniquely identifies the lottery ticket, and is typically recorded by a lottery agency so that the lottery ticket may be validated. For example, the serial number may be used to verify whether the ticket numbers inscribed on a ticket match those ticket numbers that the lottery agency has recorded as associated with that lottery ticket.
A typical lottery ticket has six ticket numbers, each selected from a range, such as the range from one to forty-nine. The six ticket numbers may have been selected by the ticket holder or, at the request of the ticket holder, randomly selected by the lottery terminal printing the ticket. On a drawing date (e.g., at a predetermined time), the lottery agency randomly selects six ticket numbers, which are deemed “winning” ticket numbers. A lottery ticket having ticket numbers that match some or all of the winning ticket numbers is a winning ticket, and the corresponding holder of the lottery ticket wins a prize.
A great-grandparent application of the present application, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/822,709, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PERFORMING LOTTERY TICKET TRANSACTIONS UTILIZING POINT-OF-SALE TERMINALS”, filed on Mar. 21, 1997 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,267,670 on Jul. 31, 2001 discloses a system and method by which lottery tickets, including fractional lottery tickets, may be sold to a customer at a point-of-sale (“POS”) terminal. Any full lottery ticket and/or fraction or percentage of a full lottery ticket may be purchased by the customer, either as a stand-alone transaction, or while purchasing other merchandise.